Republican leaders' support for Trump unwavering despite his boasts of groping women

Alan Keyes is the guy Obama trounced by 50 points to get elected to the Senate.

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Maybe you can! I have a hard time having a reasonable conversation with someone who begins with the idea that they don’t owe anyone else anything. Because of course you do, assclown.

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The illos for the Boing Boing Trump coverage have been wonderful and awful.

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Yes and no. There’s no legal pathway for forcing him off the ticket. If Trump drops or dies there are a couple processes for replacing him. Basically the GOP has to hold another convention or something similar. Before November 8th. On zero notice. If he drops today (the 9th) that’s 30 days. All the delegates previously selected at primaries have to have a re-vote. There’s another similar process involving, again basically an intra-party vote. The last time this came up it was pointed out that the last hard deadline for replacing Trump was back in September. At this point early voting has already started. And Trumps name is already printed on the ballots. Votes already cast for Trump can not simply be counted as votes for his replacement. And votes cast for Trump if he remains on the ballot likewise can’t be assumed to be a vote for his replacement. There’s some recourse through the electoral college. Since we’re only technically voting to select electors that are bound to vote for a particular candidate. Those electors can go “faithless” and switch their vote to the new GOP nom, should any actual states (or districts in the case of Maine) go Trump. But several states bar electors from doing that. Large numbers of GOP electors are apparently DIE HARD Trump supporters and would be unlikely to follow through. And this situation would be totally pointless if anyone, especially Hillary, cobbles together enough electoral votes (which has been pretty likely for Hillary since step one) to take the win. The hope on that front is that between Trump. 3rd party candidates. Write ins. ETC enough electoral votes will be in the wind that noone hits the minimum threshold for a win. The election gets dumped to the house, and the House picks Trump’s replacement.

All of this is extremely messy. And most of it has never been tried before. Its almost certainly a recipe for serious division and infighting in the GOP and a whole fucking avalanche of law suits.

Which is why I’m reasonably sure the calls for Trump to step down are public dick waving. It’ll likely never happen, because it will make matters worse if it did. Even if it leads to a GOP win (somehow!). But if you’re a GOP pol in a down ballot race. A toothless demand Trump stand down is a great way to cover your ass for the future. Particularly if it never happens.

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This is what causes voters to disengage.
In a two-party system, this hurts both parties.
America has now officially sunk to a new low.

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Don’t be so negative! I have faith that America can sink even lower.

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From now on every time someone in the US asks how verifiable assholes like Putin, Duterte, or dare I say it, Hitler* were able to drum up a sizable portion of the population to support them we can point at this election.

We live in the age of mass media and the internet. No one can excuse themselves and say “I didn’t know he was such an asshole/racist/lier/misogynist”

*to clarify: I don’t think Trump is literally Hitler, but a racist idiot. But both showed their true colors before any election through available publications.

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No love for Johnson, Gove and Arron Banks then? Or Murdoch?

My list of candidates, taking both sides of the Atlantic into account, for dropping into a pyroclastic event is so large that the explosion of the Yellowstone volcano would barely be sufficient to provide enough lava.

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I wonder how much of that is genuine Trump support and how much a desire to get their pictures in the media and get front row places?
Never attribute to political conviction that which can be attributed to narcissism. And yes, I do have a number of politicians in mind as well as their followers.

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Are Trump’s positions really “antithetical to their values”? His opposition to free trade may be out of step with the rank and file but his positions on immigration and Muslims seem mainstream within the GOP, the party of people like Rep. Peter King. He may have changed his views on abortion but he’s not the first Republican candidate to do so, and Mike Pence’a open disgust for LGBT people is pretty much a plank of the party platform.

Beyond that I don’t really know what his ideas are since this election has been more about personalities than ideas than any other I can think of.

Maybe this is my own cynicism but I thought once the attempts to stop Trump’s rise failed Republicans saw him as potentially another W: an electable figurehead who could be counted on to serve as a distraction. The problem is Trump carries more baggage and can’t seem to stay on message. Policy-wise he’s probably controllable because he’s not really interested in the job, just the title, but that doesn’t do them any good if he loses.

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On a practical note, it’s looking extremely likely that Pence will quit. I wonder who’d step in as VP? Christie? Newt??

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No. This is the digital equivalent of childish name-calling. And it is visually disgusting. I don’t like this asshole either, but please stop putting me off my food. Same for you, boingboing, please stop this. Duder is ugly enough unaltered.

Schwarzenegger’s statement sort of got to me, to tell the truth. I had a moment of wanting to go out and hug an eagle.

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Not about foreign leaders, or the major city a significant international conflict has been occurring in, or…

That’s just an improved Democratic Party. I am more prone to believing that the Ds can be improved, than for a whole new party to take its place any time soon.

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Trump!
Trump for my love!

Trump in!
He’s got two arms to…

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Mutualism?

I doubt the Libertarian Party would touch it though, as it’s universally considered to be among the left wing libertarian philosophies.

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I suggest you look up some political cartoons from the 18th or 19th century. Trump gets off lightly.

George IVth:

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(it occurred to me last night that this this is now a multi-layered unintentional political joke…)

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“Things were even worse in the 18th century” isn’t much of a defense of anything, though.

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